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IN PERSON; . . . But Only Minchello Can Make a Tree

GERMANY started it, many people say. Queen Victoria brought it to England. America modernized it. And then along came Philip Minchello -- and the Christmas tree tradition may never be the same.

''My products are altogether different,'' he says. ''Our trees look like we are partners with God.''

Mr. Minchello is the founder of Holiday Tree & Trim Co., a year-round Christmas wonderland at 750 Broadway in downtown Bayonne. And at age 75, he is nowhere near the end of his quest to create an artificial tree that would fool Mother Nature.

It all started 40-some years ago with a batch of artificial Christmas trees that nobody wanted. Mr. Minchello had been selling artificial trees as a seasonal sideline of his father's produce business at 22d Street and Avenue C in Bayonne -- and thinking about how to make them better.

As Mr. Minchello recounts the story, he went to the manufacturer who had been unable to sell its trees and said he would buy them for $2 each -- more, he argued, than the garbage man would pay. He reconstructed them to meet his standards; this, he told people, was what an artificial tree should be. A skeptic told him ''You'll go broke making this tree.''

For a while, Mr. Minchello kept one hand in the produce business and one hand in the tree business. Then a fire leveled the block where the tree store stood, and Mr. Minchello had to decide what to do with the rest of his life. He chose trees.

He found a new store and filled it with stock. But before it could open, it was destroyed by an electrical fire. That was in August 1967.

By Nov. 7 -- ''I'll never forget it'' -- he was back in business. ''People came out of the woodwork to help in those days,'' he said.

He had a good season, he says, and 30 years later, Holiday Tree and Trim is still making trees ''from 100 percent American labor and material.''

Signs around the store and store literature make it clear what Mr. Mihnechello thinks about foreign competition -- one brochure refers to China as ''the main predator trying to dominate the Christmas Tree industry.'' (Another Northeast tree maker, Hudson Valley Tree Inc. in Newburgh, N.Y., blamed Chinese competition when it closed its factory last June.)

Mr. Minchello has little sympathy for President Clinton's recent struggles to win approval of a new trade bill. ''If a politician knew anything about business, he wouldn't be a politician,'' he said. ''He'd be a businessman.''

The trees (along with wreaths and garlands) are made on the second floor of the company's Broadway building. When the lines are running at full capacity, from February through October, Holiday Tree & Trim employs 75 full-time workers.

Everything starts with a strip of green polyvinyl chloride that is sliced into fringes and wrapped around wires of different weight. Branches are hand-wrapped with brown twine to create a realistic look. After the trees are completely assembled, company literature says, they are tested with a ''patented Treeometer'' to insure that the tree will always stand up straight. (Mr. Minchello's trees come with a 50-year guarantee).

The company makes 14 varieties of trees, but its piece de resistance is its Douglass fir. The smallest, 3.5 feet tall, with 866 branch tips, sells for $89; the largest, a 10-foot model with 7,832 branch tips, costs $995.

Potential customers won't find Holiday trees in any other stores. Mr. Michello tried that in the past, with unhappy results. ''When I make a thing, I fall in love with it,'' he said. ''When I go to someone else's store and I see how my products are displayed, I'm insulted. They're not treating it with the reverence it deserves.''

There's little chance that will happen in his own showroom. He moves through the forest of trees, adjusting a branch here, a branch there, calling an employee's attention to a tree that strikes him as particularly droopy.

''The only grouch here is me,'' he says. ''I get very grouchy because I'm a perfectionist to a fault.''

Customers who visit the store should be prepared for sensory overload: blinking lights, a tapestry of carols and a riot of merchandise (predominantly red and green, of course). Besides its own trees, Holiday sells an almost incomprehensible array of Christmas cheer from a custom-made chandelier bedecked with garlands, lights and stars ($229) to packages of colorful icicles ($2.50 for 300 18-inch strands.) It also carries many of the popular collectibles from the company called Dept. 56. Scattered throughout the displays are signs that say ''Jesus Is The Reason For The Season.''

''It's important for people to remember that,'' Mr. Minchello says.

His own earliest memory of Christmas?

''We were living in Hoboken. I was maybe eight or nine, living in a tenement house on Jackson Street. The landlord lived there, too. He had an enormous fmaily. And he would put up a great big Christmas tree. He opened it up to everyone. We wouldn't wait. It was happy. It made everybody forget the Depression.''

These days his own family's Christmas celebrations are low-key. His son, Mitch, works in the business full time and his wife, Cynthia, comes in at peak season. (Mr. Minchello describes his wife of 50 years as the store's best salesperson.) ''We generally go out to eat,'' he said. ''I can't begin to ask my wife to cook dinner. She's been working so hard here. She would do it if I asked here, but I can't.''

That's because the next day, Dec. 26, is inevitably the busiest day of the year. People begin lining up outside the store before dawn, waiting up to five hours to get into the store. ''For 50 percent off, they'll sell their grandmother,'' says Mr. Minchello, who lets in only a dozen or so shoppers at a time to keep the buying frenzy under control in his crowded display space.

Discounts are available year-round at a store just across the parking lot from the main store, which sells samples, discontinued merchandise and items that Mr. Minchello decides have grown ''a little stodgy.''

It seems unlikely that the magic doorbell is going to end up there soon, or the musical climbing Santa or the dueling banjo bears that play ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'' and 19 other songs ($79.95 for the set.) Mr. Minchello takes too much delight in showing them off as he guides a visitor through the store.

Mitch Minchello can be equally passionate but it's not the magic doorbell or the fiber-optic lights that get him wound up. It's talking about the store's web site (http:// www.holidaytree.com), which has over 3,700 pages and a list of more than 3,000 illustrated products. It also offers s music to shop by for those who want it; the music menu includes Christmas carols, of course, along with a variety of other styles from hard rock to classical, which is the most popular. . With the web site, Holiday Tree & Trim has the ability to do business around the world 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

''Somebody could buy a Christmas tree and everything to go with it while sitting in their underwear in Spokane,'' he said. (''Actually that's my line,'' said his girlfriend, Deanna Urbanski, who also works on the website business. They met, by the way, in an Internet chat room. ''Which just proves you can get anything you want on the Internet,'' Mr. Minchello says.'')

The website has expanded the company's customer base far outside the 75-mile radius from Bayonne that it used to serve. Now the company ships worldwide. Earlier this month, the staff was talking about an order that had been sent to Germany: $209 worth of merchandise, delivered at a shipping cost of $205, proving, apparently, that people will pay anything for the Christmas spirit.

And what about Mr. Minchello? Does he ever run out of Christmas cheer?

''Never,'' he said. ''I'm as enthused on July Fourth as I am on December 24th.''

Why?

''It keeps me happy,'' he said. ''I love this business. If I died here, I'd have a smile on my face.''

DECKING THE HALLS

More Places to Find the Christmas Spirit

All around New Jersey, there are places where Christmas lasts a long time, sometimes 12 months a year. Here are a few.

CHRISTMAS ISLAND -- 400 Madison Avenue, Cape May. (609) 884-4342. Ads for the store, in business since 1952, invite shoppers to drop by and be greeted by ''Bonnie's wagging tail'' and ''Ken's great smile.'' Bonnie is the resident collie; Ken is Ken Fortnum, the owner. Christmas Island is open from May through Dec. 31. It is open daily except Wednesdays, 10 A.M. to 5 P.M.

MICHAEL'S TREE AND TRIM COMPANY -- 297 Palisade Avenue, Cliffside Park. (201) 945-6360. The store, open from October through Jan. 15, is now open 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. daily. After Thanksgiving, it will stay open until 9 P.M. Mondays through Saturdays and until 6 P.M. on Sundays.

WINTERWOOD GIFT AND CHRISTMAS SHOP -- 3137 Route 9 South, Rio Grande. (609) 465-3641. Hours at the store, which is open year-round, are 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. daily; after Thanksgiving, the store will be open daily from 10 A.M. to 9 P.M.

Pools and other summer specialties don't sell all that well when the temperature drops, so some businesses change their focus when the seasons change. In New Jersey, these stores include Fountains of Wayne, Route 46 West, Wayne (973) 256-1552.

Branch Brook puts aside pools and spas for indoor and outdoor holiday decorations. It has a store in Rockaway, at 295 Route 46 (973-586-3838) and in Hazlet, at 370 Route 36 (732-787-6897).

In the Treasure Island chain, stores also shift into holiday mode in the fall; the rest of the year they sell patio furniture.

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A version of this article appears in print on November 16, 1997, on Page NJ14 of the National edition with the headline: IN PERSON; . . . But Only Minchello Can Make a Tree. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe